The present invention relates to an airbag system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to an airbag system for an automobile as a typical vehicle.
In recent years, automobiles as a typical vehicle have been increasingly popularly equipped with both driver- and passenger-side airbag systems. Such airbag systems need to properly inflate in car crashes, but must not needlessly inflate in the absence of such emergencies in terms of labor and cost since exchange and adjustment are required once they have inflated. In the control of such airbag systems, it is important in, especially, the inflation control of the passenger-side airbag to check whether or not a passenger is sitting in the front passenger seat unlike the driver-side airbag, since often no passenger sits in the front passenger seat. In a vehicle equipped with a passenger-side airbag, another problem is posed in its inflation control when a so-called child seat for an infant is attached to the front passenger seat. When a child seat is attached facing front to the front passenger seat, the passenger-side airbag must be permitted to inflate, but when a child seat is attached facing rear, the passenger-side airbag must be inhibited from inflating since shocks to the child seat and an infant who is sitting in that child seat upon inflation of the passenger-side airbag must be prevented.
As a method of solving this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-165011 discloses a method of detecting the presence/absence of a child seat via communications with the child seat by arranging a transmission/reception mechanism in a seat.
The present applicants proposed a method associated with inflation control of a passenger-side airbag and signaling to a passenger in previous Japanese Patent Application Nos. 9-2130, 9-2131, 9-2132, 9-2133, and 9-2134, as a detailed and concrete method of solving the above-mentioned problem. These Japanese Patent Applications are filed in Japan on Jan. 9, 1997, which are not opened at present. Note, the Japanese Patent Application Nos. 9-2130 and 9-2134 now correspond to respective Japanese laid-open patent publications 10-194076 and 10-194080.
In order to assure higher safety, not only driver- and passenger-side airbags, but also so-called side airbags that can relax shocks from the sides of a vehicle onto passengers are required to be attached.
However, the above-mentioned prior arts do not include any disclosures associated with inflation control of the side airbags.